THE

TO THE VICTORIA & GEORGE CROSS

John Taylor (1822-1857) was born in the St Philip and St Jacob Parish of Bristol in February 1822. Little is known about his life prior to enlistment with the Royal Navy in around 1840. Taylor had risen to the rank of Captain of the Forecastle just prior to the outbreak of the Crimean War, when he became part of the newly formed Naval Brigade, which took part in the Siege of Sebastopol from 1854 to 1855.

On 18th June 1855, immediately following the assault on the Redan near Sebastopol, a soldier of the 57th Regiment of Foot was observed, sitting up and calling for help, having been shot through both legs. Immediately, the second in command of one of the scaling parties, Commander Henry Raby, Boatswain’s Mate Henry Curtis and Taylor came out from their battery works, and ran over 70 yards across open ground, under heavy enemy fire, and carried the wounded man to safety.

Sadly, Taylor never lived long enough to receive his Victoria Cross. On the day after his announcement of the VC in the London Gazette on 24th February 1857, he died in the Royal Marine Infirmary in Woolwich, London. He was buried in the Woolwich Old Cemetery. His Victoria Cross was presented via registered post to Mrs Elizabeth Taylor on 8th July 1857. His medal was purchased in the 1920s at auction and is now part of the Sheesh Mahal Museum Collection, Patiala, India.